Tag: Thailand

31 Thai sailors missing after vessel sinks: Navy

  Bangkok, Thailand (AFP) At least 31 Thai Navy sailors were missing on Monday after their vessel sank off the southeastern coast of Thailand, a naval spokesperson said. The HTMS Sukhothai was patrolling the Gulf of Thailand, roughly 20 nautical miles from Bang Saphan pier in southern Prachuap Khiri Khan, when it ran into strong tides and took on water late Sunday night. A rescue mission was launched after the vessel’s electronic system was damaged, […]

Thailand hits 10 million visitors in 2022 as tourism recovers

Bangkok, Thailand (AFP) Thailand celebrated the arrival of its 10 millionth international visitor of 2022 on Saturday, according to the tourism authority, as the kingdom consolidated the recovery of its Covid-battered travel sector. Thailand welcomed some 40 million people in 2019, but then the pandemic hit and travel was decimated as nations tightened border controls to contain the coronavirus. With those restrictions easing worldwide Thailand’s travel numbers have begun a slow recovery and the government […]

Bad abbot: Thai temple left empty after monks fail drug tests

BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — A Buddhist temple in central Thailand has been left without monks after all its holy men failed drug tests and were defrocked, a local official said Tuesday. Four monks including an abbot at a temple in Phetchabun province’s Bung Sam Phan district tested positive for methamphetamine on Monday, district official Boonlert Thintapthai told AFP. The monks have been sent to a health clinic to undergo drug rehabilitation, the official said. “The […]

Police, protesters clash as Bangkok hosts summit

  Bangkok, Thailand | AFP | Thai police fired rubber bullets Friday in clashes with dozens of protesters trying to march to the venue of an Asia-Pacific summit in Bangkok. Around 50 people demonstrating against the event and Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-Cha threw rocks, bottles and broken glass during half an hour of scuffles with hundreds of riot police. The incident took place near the Thai capital’s Democracy Monument, around eight kilometres (five miles) from […]

Badminton World Tour finals moved from China to Thailand because of Covid

BEIJING, China (AFP) – China will no longer host the season-ending Badminton World Tour Finals in December because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the sport’s governing body said on Tuesday. The Badminton World Federation had planned to host the flagship $1.5 million event in Guangzhou between December 14 and 18, but the event will now take place in Bangkok, Thailand, the previous week. China has cancelled almost all international sports competitions since Covid emerged there in 2019, […]

Japan PM to meet China’s Xi in Bangkok on Thursday

  Tokyo, Japan | AFP | Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday at an APEC gathering in Bangkok, Tokyo’s top government spokesman said Monday. “Prime Minister Kishida is scheduled to hold a Japan-China summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the 17th, on the occasion of the APEC summit,” Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters. The leaders spoke on the phone in October 2021 after Kishida’s election, but […]

Thai doctor recounts Mali kidnap ordeal

Bangkok, Thailand | AFP | A Thai plastic surgeon on Thursday described drinking pond water to survive during three weeks of captivity at the hands of gun-toting kidnappers in Mali. Nopparat Rattanawaraha, who also runs a popular YouTube channel where he posts travel clips, returned to Thailand after being released on payment of a reported $150,000 ransom. The 49-year-old was back at work just a day after flying back to the kingdom, and recounted the […]

Families mourn Thai nursery dead ahead of king’s visit

by Montira Rungjirajittranon with Thanaporn Promyamyai in Bangkok Agence France-Presse NA KLANG, Thailand (AFP) — Weeping, grief-stricken families gathered Friday outside a Thai nursery where an ex-policeman murdered nearly two dozen children in one of the kingdom’s worst mass killings. Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn and Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha will later visit survivors of the attack that left at least 37 people dead, including the attacker’s wife and child. Overnight, coffins carrying the bodies of […]

Thai king to visit nursery shooting survivors

BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — The Thai king will on Friday visit survivors of a gun and knife attack on a nursery that left at least 37 people dead, most of them young children. King Maha Vajiralongkorn will meet families reeling from the tragedy in northeastern Nong Bua Lam Phu province, as will Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha, a government spokesman said. Thailand has begun mourning one of its deadliest mass killings, with flags on government buildings […]

Gunman murders at least 37 in Thai nursery attack

Udon Thani, Thailand | AFP | by Montira Rungjirajittranon with Thanaporn Promyamyai in Bangkok A former police officer shot dead at least 37 people, most of them children, when he stormed a nursery in Thailand on Thursday in one of the kingdom’s deadliest mass killings. Following the attack, gunman Panya Khamrab went home and killed his wife and child before taking his own life, police said. Armed with a shotgun, pistol and knife, Panya opened fire […]

UPDATE: Gunman murders at least 30 in Thai nursery attack: police

Man behind Thurs's mass shooting at childcare centre in Nong Bua Lamphu which killed 30, many children, identified by police as former officer, pol sergeant Panya Kamrab. Assailant fled on a white pickup with Bangkok licence plate 6 กธ [Kor Tor]6499. #Thailand #กราดยิงหนองบัวลำภู pic.twitter.com/LrvjXFowzu — Khaosod English (@KhaosodEnglish) October 6, 2022   Bangkok, Thailand | AFP | A former police officer armed with a gun and a knife stormed a nursery in northeast Thailand on […]

Typhoon Noru tears across Vietnam, Laos

  Danang, Vietnam | AFP | by Tran Thi Minh Ha Typhoon Noru tore roofs from homes and caused power outages across central Vietnam Wednesday, with hundreds of thousands of people taking refuge, after the storm claimed at least 10 lives in the Philippines. In Danang, Vietnam’s third-largest city, high-rise buildings shook as the typhoon made landfall in the early hours of Wednesday, bringing winds of up to around 120 kilometres (75 miles) per hour, […]